OK! Perhaps it was Hello! that won the battle, but lost the war

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The Catherine Zeta-Jones and Michael Douglas courtroom drama was billed as the case that would confirm a law of privacy. But, it ended up merely being a case about trade secrets

So it was a private wedding after all. The best showbiz trial since the heady days of the early 1990s, when London was the libel capital of the world, has seen Michael Douglas, Catherine Zeta-Jones and OK! vanquish the latter’s arch rival, Hello!, which had printed unofficial photographs of the wedding.

But in finding for the claimants, Mr Justice Lindsay has not picked up the slow-burning torch of privacy. Instead, the law of confidence was put under the spotlight. Though the court has deferred the award of damages to a later date, for now the Douglases and OK! can celebrate.